Monday, June 5, 2017

"Most trusted" - except, perhaps, by many of their own people

(First published in The Dominion Post, June 2.)

I recently wrote a column in this space about the St John
Ambulance organisation. It was prompted by a Consumer survey of emergency
survival kits which rated the one marketed by St John as the worst of those
tested. Ironically, it didn’t include a first aid kit.

I wondered how an organisation with St John’s proud history
and reputation could have exposed itself to such public embarrassment, and I
attempted to answer my own question by speculating that it had been corporatised
– and in the process, become disconnected from its roots.

I pointed out that it wouldn’t be the only worthy
organisation to have succumbed to the ruinous cult of managerialism, with all
the attendant trappings of bloated hierarchical structures, marketing and PR
flannel, expense accounts and flatulent corporate jargon.

The column prompted a mixed reaction – one predictable, the
other unexpected. I’ll deal with the
predictable one first.

Andrew Boyd, St John’s central region general manager, wrote
a defensive letter to the paper pointing out, among other things, that a St
John first aid kit was available as an extra to the $200 “Emergency Grab Kit”.

This seemed to confirm the suggestion by a disgruntled St
John veteran – one of many who contacted me – that the omission of a first aid
kit, thus requiring that it be purchased separately, was a calculated
commercial decision.

“Profit first!” as one commenter on the Stuff website put
it. “St John are more interested in growing the wealth of the organisation.”

As someone else pointed out, the fact that St John sold
first aid kits separately was no excuse for not including one in its emergency
kit. This person also said you’d assume the kit would include emergency rations
and water – but the bright sparks in the St John marketing department
apparently didn’t think of that.

Boyd’s letter went on to say that “All St John products are
regularly clinically assessed”. Not very rigorously, obviously, or the
emergency kit wouldn’t have got such a shellacking from Consumer.

In fact Boyd went on to reveal the kit had been removed from
sale while it was “re-evaluated”. What’s that, if not an admission that it was
a crock?

But there’s a much bigger issue here, which brings me to the
unexpected reaction.

My column uncorked a bottle of disenchantment, cynicism and
distrust among the frontline rank and file who represent, for most New
Zealanders, the public face of St John. One insider said I had described the
organisation “to a T”.

Both in online comments and emails to me directly, St John
volunteers expressed dismay at the way the organisation has changed: at the
proliferation of middle managers and the layers of sclerotic bureaucracy that
get in the way of good people trying to do something they love for the good of
the community. These are all hallmarks of corporatisation.

Even more striking was a very real fear that internal
critics of the organisation would face repercussions if they were identified.
“St John is very touchy about bad publicity,” said one.

That’s another defining characteristic of corporatisation:
an obsession with public image and a desperate desire to prevent negative
messages getting out. Journalists dealing with corporate communications
flunkies see this every day.

Boyd pointed out in his letter that St John was recently
voted New Zealand’s Most Trusted Charity in a Reader’s Digest survey, but this didn’t impress one St John
stalwart. “He appears to be basking in the ‘most trusted’ reputation when this
is actually provided by those of us who work at the coalface – the people who
work in the community who the public see and relate to,” this long-serving
volunteer wrote in an email.

I received many other comments in a similar vein. One
commenter on Stuff said St John had become top-heavy and added: “The petty
attitude towards the coalface staff is what gets me. Management think they ARE
St John.”

Either the St John hierarchy doesn’t know about this
underbelly of discontent, or chooses to ignore it. Either way, something’s
wrong.

Is it unfair to single St John out for criticism? Perhaps.
Several people named other not-for-profit organisations that have been
transformed by corporatisation, and not in a good way. One commenter suggested
the problem lies partly with the demands imposed by charities legislation.

Perhaps St John just had the misfortune to come to public
attention because of a spectacularly incompetent marketing exercise. But
clearly its bosses have some repair work to do.

About Me

I am a freelance journalist and columnist living in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand. In the presence of Greenies I like to boast that I walk to work each day - I've paced it out and it's about 15 metres. I write about all sorts of stuff: politics, the media, music, wine, films, cycling and anything else that piques my interest - even sport, though I admit I don't have the intuitive understanding of sport that most New Zealand males absorb as if by osmosis. I'm a former musician (bass and guitar) with a lifelong love of music that led me to write my book 'A Road Tour of American Song Titles: From Mendocino to Memphis', published by Bateman NZ in July 2016. I've been in journalism for more than 40 years and like many journalists I know a little bit about a lot of things and probably not enough about anything. I have never won any journalism awards.